How to Write 农 (nóng) — Meaning “Agriculture; farming”

Picture a farmer wearing a wide straw hat (the top 冖) while bending over to plant rice; the lower strokes look like the farmer's body and arm reaching down. This visual of working under a hat helps connect the shape to the meaning 'agriculture'.

Start by writing the radical 冖: a dot then a horizontal hook. Then write the lower part in order: left-falling stroke, horizontal, vertical hook, left-falling stroke, and finally a dot. A common mistake is making the vertical hook too curved or forgetting the final dot.

农 has a complex lower part with a vertical hook and a dot, while 冗 has a simple 几 (table) under the roof, and 冘 has a 人 (person) under the roof. In meaning, 农 is about farming, 冗 means redundant or useless, and 冘 is rare and means to go forward.

农 appears in everyday words like 农民 (farmer), 农村 (countryside), and 农场 (farm). It is culturally important because agriculture has been the foundation of Chinese civilization for thousands of years, and 农 is often used in discussions about rural life and food security.

Common words containing 农 include: 农民 (nóng mín) — Farmer; 农村 (nóng cūn) — Rural area; countryside; 农场 (nóng chǎng) — Farm.